It was even more beautiful before the Turks conquered it and obliterated most traces of earlier civilizations. As good Moslems the Turks knew : "All before Islam belongs to the Age of Ignorance (jakhilya)". Hence they behaved correspondingly . Or what happened to the Greek cemeteries and churches in Asia Minor or Northern Cyprus , Tijen ?

> I am sure you would be shaking uncontrollably with fear if you had neighbors like Iran, Iraq (PKK) and Syria.

We once had Turkey for a few centuries as a neighbour and it was a nightmare. Small wonder that ALL (I know no exceptions) nations that had once to do with the Turks hate them and will do to the Day of the Last Judgment . This was an experience one never forgets .

> Turkey is a peace seeking nation and we would be like Switzerland if we did not have such problematic neighbors.

Again the fairy tale of persecuted and denigrated virtue. If Turkey wasn't such a monster , she would have at least one neighbour who should like and appreciate it . But the problem is that it hasn't ! Not a single one !Not even Bulgaria can stand Turkey ! But remarkably enough our Tijen makes us believe it is all others' but never magnanimous Turkey's fault ! All of them are to blame , not Turkey ! How typically Islamic !

> Since the standard of living has improved, less Turks perefer to live abroad now.

Or rather there are fewer and fewer countries stupid enough to accept Turks as immigrants.

> The truck load of people you are referring to are not all Turks. People illiegally come from the Middle-East to Turkey en route to the Balkans and beyond. This has increased ever since the occupation of Iraq by the American military started.

In plain text - now the Turks specialize in smuggling people and drugs to the West . What would happen if Turkey entered the EU ? They would monoplize the trade.

> Could you please explain why more Greeks live outside of Greece than within their borders? Is Greece such a terrible place?

Good question ? Do you know how the first Greek settlement was formed in Nezhinsk in Southern Russia ? You will never ever believe that they were running away from the happiness and felicity brought by the Ottoman scimitar , won't you ?

> Also, the only thing Armenians want is "MONEY" from the Turkish government for compensation for the so-called genocide.

Quite symptomatic of a Turk ! He could never imagine the problem might be "justice", not "money" . The Turk always believes his own dubious standards of thinking are applied universally by all .

> Isn't it funny how the hidden motive mostly turns up to be "MONEY" at the end.

Yes, it is very funny to unearth the Turk's soul and see the old , all too well-known Ottoman-Moslem habits unchanged.

> This is just a modern civilized version of the tactics used by the looting, raping, murdering Crusaders.

Agreed - provided you delete "crusaders" and replace it with "Kemalists" .

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Mark my comment as a response to "Vatan"(homeland) - an Arabic word for a non-existing Turkish concept by Ianus

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".